"Generally Regarded with a Lenient Eye": Amateur Theatre in Dunedin, 1862-1868

Abstract

The phrase―"amateur theatre" often carries an implicit derogatory undertone. It may suggest a group of well-meaning, untrained enthusiasts, awkwardly staging third-rate plays for their friends and families, with a company that might contain one or two moderately skilled performers lost in a sea of essentially bad acting. The pleasure for the audience at such a supposed performance might consist chiefly in being able to laugh at or sympathize with the embarrassment of their friends up on stage. This pattern of excruciating acting coupled with actively mocking audience response dates at least as far back as the appearance of Shakespeare‘s―"rude Mechanicals" in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Certainly in colonial New Zealand and Australia, the general assumption might be that that the audience was likely to require considerable forbearance to sit through an amateur performance, and that many allowances would have to be made—or not.